8-12-67% 3-11--19pts--8reb--2 blocks much improvement--that just need to hit FTs

i was suprised by james..he had some pretty nice moves in the post

Curry was awful again thou.

Swift is going to be good. He has such a quick first step.

Curry's calf injury seems to have completely set him back, after he had shown some progress relative to the start of the season. I hope the injury is mostly healed, because we need him healthy and right now he's not playing very well anyway, so if the injury is still lingering he might as well keep sitting.

jackie butler, channing frye, jerome james, eddy curry, remeber last year when our center was 6-9 kurt thomas? its amazing the change that can happen in one off season.

[Edited by - slimpack on 12-07-2005 01:30 AM]

Posted by martin:

why no talk of Butler. I though he WAS the best center out there all around. Solid D, nothing fancy at the O end, but solid. There are times when an opposing player goes strong to the whole and I just figure Jackie is going to foul him, but no, puts the arms up straight and covers the space nicely. Brown is right so far (and baring injury).

Absolutely. You get a good presence under the rim MINUS the fouls and turnovers.

Posted by martin:

why no talk of Butler. I though he WAS the best center out there all around. Solid D, nothing fancy at the O end, but solid. There are times when an opposing player goes strong to the whole and I just figure Jackie is going to foul him, but no, puts the arms up straight and covers the space nicely. Brown is right so far (and baring injury).

yeah you know who butler reminds me of? al jefferson from the celtics. he doesnt have freakish athleticism but he good some good solid fundamentals, hopefully he continues to develop, he isnt all the way there yet, but he's shown some good signs sans the costly defensive lapse last sunday that led to our defeat.

Posted by tomverve:

No question, Butler doesn't seem to have outstanding talent but he's just a very solid and competent player. Definitely a nice alternative to have when you have James and Curry fouling and turning it over a lot. The past couple of games he's also had a knack for grabbing a big offensive rebound or two down the stretch and putting it back in. When he matures he's going to be a great glue guy and perhaps even something more than just that. I hope we can keep on to him this offseason.

what is outstanding talent--a 35 inch vertical leap and 7-1? butler has VERY good hands very good fundamentals
he catches the ball, he's very smooth and soft at the basket--hes strong and can rebound in traffic, he may be 6-9 or so, but he has long arms that compensate for lack of height. hes not flashy, but if this cat gets 14 FGA's hes taken down 8 of them with 8+ rebounds with the PT once he gets rolling. I would definitely cater to LOCKING up Jackie Butler LONG term WAY before Ariza.

Posted by simrud:

Curry was awful again thou.

Curry must have drawn 8 fouls over the course of the game. He needs more conditioning and FT practice, but "awful" is a tremendous overstatement.

also, butler could easily play PF for Frye

we just need to move davis for a SF like Ruben Patterson--maybe if Miles is not hurt that bad--we go ahead make that trade while he is hurt--if its not microfracture--and put Ruben in at SF and work Darius back in--Im sure Portland may reconsider

at the very least couldnt they use mo t?:>) for blake and Patterson?:>)